Talent Acquisition Manager

Overview

SSOE is seeking a full life cycle recruiting and Talent Acquisition Manager role based in Mumbai, India. The position partners with hiring managers, HR leaders, and business leaders to identify, attract, assess, and hire top talent for India-based openings.

This role is for a hands-on leader who will support full life cycle recruitment for assigned requisitions and also serve as a trusted advisor on India talent market trends, workforce planning, compensation expectations, notice-period norms, candidate engagement, recruitment compliance, and inclusive hiring practices. This position also manages, coaches, and develops a team of recruiters while ensuring recruitment work is delivered with quality, consistency, and efficiency.

AI and Innovation

At SSOE, we don’t just talk about the future, we build it. As a leader in industry AI adoption, we empower our team to work smarter by providing responsible access to the industry leading AI Large Language Models, vibe-coding platforms, and securely integrating advanced tools into every role. From day one, you’ll receive the training and support needed to leverage AI as a core tool for enhancing productivity, sparking creativity, and streamlining complex workflows.

Responsibilities

Team Leadership and Section Management

• Lead, coach, direct, coordinate, and supervise Talent Acquisition section personnel.
• Manage, coach, and develop recruiters by setting goals, providing feedback, supporting professional growth, and driving accountability.
• Monitor recruitment workload, recruiter assignments, hiring priorities, talent pipelines, and recruiting capacity.
• Identify team strengths, development areas, and training needs; implement training plans with HR, Training and Development, or other appropriate resources.
• Support employee relations activities for section personnel with assistance from Human Resources.
• Promote a culture of collaboration, accountability, innovation, inclusion, compliance, continuous improvement, and high performance.

Full Life Cycle Recruiting and Candidate Management

• Manage the full recruitment lifecycle for mid- to senior-level India-based roles, including intake, sourcing, screening, interviewing, offer management, negotiation, pre-joining engagement, and onboarding handoff.
• Champion the candidate experience through timely communication, clear expectations, structured feedback, offer transparency, and pre-joining engagement.
• Communicate compensation, benefits, work model, career development opportunities, company culture, and employee value proposition to candidates accurately.
• Support India-specific recruitment practices, including notice-period management, offer acceptance risk, counteroffer risk, joining documentation, and background verification coordination.

Strategic Talent Advisory and Stakeholder Partnership

• Serve as a strategic talent advisor to hiring managers, HR Managers, and business leaders on workforce planning, talent availability, market intelligence, compensation trends, notice periods, and recruitment best practices.
• Partner with hiring managers to understand business needs, role requirements, project staffing demands, critical skills, and hiring priorities.
• Educate hiring managers on recruitment processes, interview discipline, candidate evaluation, inclusive hiring, hiring compliance, salary discussions, notice periods, and offer-closing strategies.
• Collaborate with HR, Total Rewards, Finance, Operations, Marketing, and business leadership on requisitions, postings, offers, compensation alignment, employer branding, documentation, and recruitment best practices.

Sourcing Strategy and Talent Pipeline Development

• Develop and execute sourcing strategies using employee referrals, LinkedIn, job portals, professional networks, social media, diversity channels, campus partnerships, and recruitment vendors.
• Build relationships with colleges, universities, technical institutes, professional associations, industry networks, vocational schools, and community organizations.
• Represent the company at job fairs, campus events, professional networking events, industry forums, and talent branding initiatives in India.
• Manage external search firms, staffing partners, job boards, campus partners, and recruitment vendors; evaluate vendor quality, timelines, and cost-effectiveness.

India Recruitment Standards and Compliance

• Ensure recruiting processes align with fair, consistent, merit-based, and inclusive hiring practices.
• Apply structured interviews and consistent candidate evaluation criteria.
• Maintain accurate requisition tracking, candidate documentation, interview feedback, offer records, and applicant tracking system data.
• Ensure proper handling of candidate personal data, recruitment records, background verification coordination, and pre-employment documentation.
• Maintain awareness of India market practices related to notice periods, offer negotiation, counteroffers, candidate drop-off risk, joining timelines, and pre-joining engagement.
• Ensure compliance with company recruitment policies, approval workflows, compensation guidelines, documentation standards, data privacy expectations, and employment-related hiring practices.
• Demonstrate sensitivity to regional, linguistic, cultural, and location-specific talent dynamics across India.

Recruitment Analytics, Process Improvement, and Special Projects

• Track recruitment metrics, including time-to-fill, pipeline health, source effectiveness, candidate experience, hiring manager satisfaction, diversity outreach, offer acceptance, joining ratio, vendor performance, and workload balance.
• Prepare recruitment reports, market insights, hiring updates, risks, and recommendations for HR, business, and senior leadership.
• Stay informed on India talent market trends, competitive hiring practices, compensation benchmarks, candidate expectations, and employment trends.
• Lead or support strategic recruitment programs, including diversity hiring, campus recruiting, employer branding, process improvement, recruiter capability building, talent mapping, and workforce planning.
• Lead special projects within Human Resources as assigned.
• Use AI or similar digital technology, where applicable and approved, to support recruitment, analytics, reporting, and process improvement.
• Travel may be required for business meetings, recruiting events, campus events, vendor meetings, or other company needs.

Qualifications

Education

• Bachelor’s degree preferred in Human Resources, Business Management/Administration, Marketing, Communications, Psychology, or related field.

Experience

• 12+ years of Talent Acquisition experience, preferably within India talent markets.

• Experience in corporate recruiting, RPO, contingency search, retained search, executive search, or similar environments.

• Proven experience managing, leading, coaching, or mentoring recruiters, recruitment teams, projects, or cross-functional Talent Acquisition initiatives.

• Experience recruiting mid- to senior-level professional roles in India.

• Experience in the AEC industry strongly preferred.

India Recruiting Knowledge

• Strong knowledge of India hiring practices, talent markets, compensation trends, notice periods, candidate engagement, offer negotiation, joining risk management, and recruitment compliance.

• Working knowledge of recruitment documentation, background verification, and candidate data privacy expectations.

Recruiting Tools and Systems

• Expertise in applicant tracking systems, LinkedIn Recruiter, job portals, sourcing platforms, recruitment analytics, and external recruiting tools.

Leadership and Communication Skills

• Strong leadership, communication, stakeholder management, influencing, sales, negotiation, time management, and problem-solving skills.

• Proven ability to manage competing priorities and deliver results in a fast-paced environment.

• Ability to inspire, motivate, and develop others.

Work Environment and Collaboration

• Ability to work independently in a hybrid or distributed work model while collaborating across teams, locations, functions, and time zones.

• Experience working with global stakeholders or U.S.-based hiring managers while recruiting India-based talent preferred.

• Positive attitude, strong work ethic, sound judgment, and customer-service orientation.

Events and Employer Branding

• Experience representing a company at campus, professional, or industry recruitment events in India.

• Experience with employer branding, campus hiring, diversity hiring, or talent community development in India preferred.

Preferred Experience

• Experience supporting global or multinational organizations.

• Experience building or scaling recruitment teams, shared services, centers of excellence, or high-volume hiring functions in India.

• Experience with recruitment dashboards, market mapping, talent intelligence, or workforce planning.

• Familiarity with recruiting for engineering, design, technical, project management, corporate services, or professional services roles.